Prophets of the Unicontext – a Talk with Agnes Callard

How you are supposed to act was, for most of human history, situation specific: a function of exactly where you are, what role you are in, what kinds of people you are with, and so on. Over the past hundred or so years, we have been moving more and more towards a world governed by abstract systems of norms that apply universally.

University of Chicago philosophy professor Dr. Agnes Callard calls this “the unicontext,” and theorizes that it helps explain many features of modern life such as: the increase of certain forms of political hostility, the prevalence of advice, the struggle to manage one’s own attention, negativity bias, the increasing foothold of rankings and metrics, and more.

According to Professor Callard, modernist writers were the first to fasten upon the unicontext—a theme she will explore through the work of modernist writers Robert Musil, Hermann Broch, and potentially others.

Professor Agnes Callard of the University of Chicago, will present a talk, “Prophets of the Unicontext”, on Thursday, October 22nd at the University of Southern Maine. This talk is supported with funding from The Louden Family Lecture Series grant.